FLORIDA - Part TWO

After the Florida Keys, we headed north and then west across the Everglades Park. LOTS of construction and one-way guided vehicles.

This is the start of the road going west...before construction.

All of us going west got escorted with a pilot vehicle at many times during the 50 miles.

This is pretty much the view looking north or south as we travelled across the Everglades.

...and a bunch of these places.

They held more than just a couple of people. We did not stop.

We passed quite a few visitor centers and, once we got to the last visitor's center, we thought, "Well, we ought to stop to visit at least one". We walked up to the building and, over nearby was a walkway with a guard rail so....I said, "Kim, let me go over to see what's over there"....and here's what we found...

We counted over 25 of these guys in the side lagoon area we overlooked! This was the best we've seen in our travels of the gators. They're amazingly fascinating to watch....even though they hardly move.

After all of that excitement, we pulled into Ft. Myers for a couple of days. This is our spot...right next to the inland islands.

...one of our neighbors had a visitor on top !

Heading over the bridge to Ft Myers Beach. That's the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. It was spring break and the beaches were mobbed. We ate inside and just watched.

Local street views...typical of this beach tourist town.

Some of the local scenery

Local street views...typical of this beach tourist town.

They have these HUGE outdoor linai-type rooms that enclose the entire backyard and pool....

...to keep out the bugs, gators, etc. Nice little "cottage" huh?

The Fish Monger restaurant....great food !

We stayed at Ft. Myers so that we could go to one of our favorite shell beaches - Sanibel Island. We've been twice before and collected quite a number of shells which Kim put in frames that we hung in our hallway at home.

She even put some out so people could pick them up and handle them.

These are from our home in Dixon....they're all in storage now.

Anyway....here are some photos from Sanibel Beach....

The bridge heading west over the Sanibel Island.

This is why we came....check out all the shells.

Kim LOVES looking for sea shells.

Here's a find....no, not me...the sea shell.



These pelicans became our favorite birds.
They look so gangly in the water but when they are so graceful when they are flying.

This is a disease many people get when collecting...it's called The Sanibel Stoop.

Of course, FrogMan had to go looking out further....notice the convergence of man, bird and water craft all at once.

One happy hubby

Well, we are off to Nokomis....about 100 miles north for a couple of months. We'll post those next time.

Kim and Steve

FLORIDA - Part One

We have been in Florida for over 3 months and are just leaving to continue our adventures north. We started in the far west in the Panhandle, cut across to the east coast where we worked our way down to St. Augustine, Daytona Speedway, Cocoa Beach, Ft. Lauderdale then down to the Keys and then up the west coast to Ft. Myers and Nokomis (where Kim had her foot surgery).

Instead of putting out blogs on each of those stops, we're going to put out a few blogs highlighting some of our activities with photos and captions. We trust you'll enjoy the quick overviews.

St. Augustine

America's oldest permanent European settlement

The oldest schoolhouse in America

One of the nice walking streets downtown. Shops, restaurants, historical places.

Kim insisted I try on these beer glass glasses.

Old Spanish architecture downtown where the city center used to be.

Maybe this is why she wanted me to try on the glasses?

You can take this boat out into the bay and Atlantic Ocean....for a fee of course.

Castillo de San Marcos fort re-enactment of the color guard.

While I explored the upper walls, Kim took a break to listen to the lectures. "Hi Blog-Folks", she says.

Inside the walls of Castillo de San Marcos where guides give lectures while dressed in period costume.

Looking out over the bay from the upper walls of the fort, Castillo de San Marcos.

Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral

A first-class deepwater port for passenger ships near Cape Canaveral.

There were three large ships in dock loading when we were there.

Look at all the decks on this boat !

One in the foreground and one in the background. We could not get over how huge they were.

One of the local Florida icons.

I bet you can guess which is Kim's hat shelf and which is Steve's....and NOT by the type of hats either!

This truck was pulling a 38-ft 5th wheel and, for his get-around car, he had one of those Smart cars.
This is how they loaded it up.

Sandhill Crane in our RV park. This one was OBNOXIOUS ! He was noisy and aggressive. After we left photographing him (her?) he came over outside our door and "honked" for food !

...just had to take this photo of the Duck Gathering 2012.

One morning we got up before the sun, drove over to the beach and watched the sun come up over the horizon. Kim took dozens of shots. This was just an example of how beautiful it looked.

After the sun came up, the sky got even more gorgeous.

Florida Keys

The word "key" is derived from the English word "cay" which in turn is derived from the Spanish word "cayo" and all mean "island."

Also, "cayos" is the Spanish word for little islands.

They are called keys because they are a chain of little islands.

Looking west toward the Gulf of Mexico from the Seven Mile Bridge.

This is Steve snorkeling in the Gulf. Our RV park had an area sectioned off with floats. He was in the water at least three times a day. One day I saw a manta ray while he was in the water....eeeek !

We thought the entire keys' roads were like this but only a few spots had these long bridges connecting the islands but, once you got on them, the view was spectacular.

Way down in the last island, Key West, is this spot that is the Southernmost Point in the continental USA....only 90 miles to Cuba from here. Naturally, there was a very long line to get photos taken. We took this from across the street in our car.

A typical tourist street in Key West....many many were like this.

We wanted to get out and walk around the town a bit but this cruise ship arrived at the same time and about 3,000 people debarked to clog up the streets....rats.

There were many styles of home in Key West....and expensive. This one is about $400K.

Another style of Key West house...even more expensive. Location, location, location.

...and a bunch of houseboats too. Not sure how they ride out the storms.

One day we rented a kayak. This is Steve coming to get me. This was a tandem kayak.

Most of the sunsets were amazing. A few days were so-so, but most were like this.

Everyone in the park would start gathering about 30 minutes before the sunset to watch.

This is one of the better photos Kim took. Nice huh?

One day, I got on top of our motorhome to wash the roof. This was our view of the Gulf.

One day, Hobbes wanted to do some reading.

Well, we hope you like this smattering of photos and events....we'll do at least one more Florida blog before we move to another state.

Kim and Steve

Kim's New Wheels !

Kim had some foot surgery done on her right foot April 23rd. She had a large bone spur and, because the cartilage was worn away between her big toe joints, she was in increasing pain. The joint bones were rubbing against each other.

This made it so that most shoes pressed down on this spot...more pain.

After surgery...no weight on her foot for two weeks.

She sat in our lazy boy chair on pain medicine and rested.

Our cat, Hobbes, kept her company. Guess who got to do ALL the chores for those two weeks!!??

Here are the x-rays from this last Thursday when she was FINALLY able to take her walking boot off after 6 weeks and walk freely (and pain free) for the first time in months!

Side view showing the bottom horizontal screw to fuse the 2 joints together as well as the 2 vertical screws front and back.

Top view showing the "plate" that makes sure the joints stay solid. LOTS of hardware in there.

We had two questions for the doctor: (1) will this set off the airport security alarm? ANSWER: it might but if you take off your shoe, they'll just wand that area. (2) will it rust? ANSWER: no, it's surgical steel.

Anyway, you should have seen Kim's face when she was walking around the hospital afterwards. Joy all over her. FINALLY, pain free feet. Congratulations Kim for sticking through it all.

Steve